Week 8: The Separation Begins

2 games separate the top 4 from the rest of the league. Is anyone going to be able to break into the group and challenge for the playoffs?

There is a chink in the Brady-Only Bunch armor, thanks to Ballin'. The Only Bunch was up by 25 going into Monday night, and Straight delivered 29 to win the match between #1 and #2. Ballin' picked the wrong QB, again betting against Favre, but the unlikely TD pass to Scheffler pulled him through. Brady had 35 for the Only Bunch, but Winslow was the only other player to get a TD and one of two others to score more than 4. Ballin' leaned heavily on Braylon Edwards' 18 but got lots of 8-9 point contributions to make it stand up.

Big Red returned to form against the Illini. Holt, Wayne, Addai, and Fletcher led the way to getting Big over 100 for the 4th time in 8 games. Too bad he left Vrabel's 27 on the bench. Nice week for having 5 on a bye. The Illini got a great 31 point game from Brees who has finally come around. Another 19 from the Giants and Wilkins helped the cause, but Ward's 16 sat on the bench hoping that .... Gray could throw a TD to Reggie???? The 67 wasn't a horrible showing by the 1-7 Illini, but it wasn't going to touch Big Red this week.

The Woopiecushins won a squeaker over the traveling Reavers. The Pats D(21) and Derek Anderson (22) were huge for the Cushions. Welker did his part with 10, but when they needed 3 from Stokley and Wynn in crunch time, they produced 3.6, just enough. Many on Reavers played well, the Jags (14), Westbrook (16), and Rudd (10) played well, and there was even a Lee Evans (13) sighting, but after the game Reavers was heard in a 3 mile radius chewing out LJ Smith and Vincent Jackson. 15 yards between them would have won the game, but they did nothing.

Spit moved into 5th at 4-4 beating the Homies. Polish was led by Winfield's 14 and the Colts, Akers, and Vernon Davis added 30. Eli produced less than 0 with his arm, but the legs came through to get 6. (Yes, I admit that I like to pick on Eli.) The Homies got a Grossman like day from Griese (4 picks). Kicker Dawson (10) was really the only player to get fro the game as the Homies drop into 12th place.

The Raiders handed the Ogres their 3rd straight loss in spite of getting less than 8 from the WRs and RBs combined. The Charger D (27) was huge and Gates (16) and Peyton (17) put up big games to get the Raiders their win. The Ogres had Big Ben (15), Fast Willie (13), and Greg Jennings(14) playing solid ball, but only one other player was over 5 points leaving them 15 points short.

Ghostriders, we aren't calling it a comeback. We are calling it a loss to the Conicals who have 2 in a row now. Clovis finally got what they have been waiting for from Colston, a 20 point game. They were also carried by Detriot's 4 picks of Griese for 14 and Joey Galloway (12). The Ghosts were not helpless. Rivers threw for 3 TDs and 20 points and TJ scored 10, but Portis' 4.05 was the only other player over 4.

The Scuds got their second win in the lack luster rematch of the 2004 super bowl against the Hillbillies. It really was a pathetic display by the two former champs combining for just over 100 points. The Hillbillies had Palmer and Gostkowski get 10 points, but they were the only double digit players in the whole game. The Scuds had 5 players in the 7-9 point range and that was all that was needed. I'd call it a defensive game, but it might be better described as offensive.